1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage control system which is connected to a host device, and a method for writing firmware into a disk type storage device belonging to a storage control system.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, in the case of a main office storage system that handles large volumes of data, data is managed using a storage control system which is constructed separately from the host terminal. For example, this storage control system is also called a “disk array device”, and is a RAID (redundant array of independent inexpensive disks) constructed by disposing numerous disk type storage devices in the form of an array.
Generally, firmware that is used to control the hardware inside a disk type storage device is installed in such a disk type storage device. For example, a technique which is devised so that when disk replacement is ascertained during the operation of the system, firmware on a reference disk mounted beforehand is copied onto the replacement disk that is newly mounted as a result of disk replacement, is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-134114.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-134114, for example, when the firmware installed on the reference disk is an old version, the firmware of this old version is also copied on to the newly mounted replacement disk. Accordingly, in order to copy firmware of a new version onto the replacement disk, it is necessary to alter the firmware that is installed on the reference disk to the firmware of this new version each time that the version of the firmware is updated. Consequently, the efficiency of this system is poor.